Open Letter To the People of RIAA
As you know, your legal efforts have done almost nothing to stop music piracy. You may also note that piracy rates increase when sales increase, and decrease when sales decrease; piracy and music sales have a direct, rather than inverse, relationship. Allow me to explain why piracy is happening, tell you the best ways to increase your sales, and explain the limits that any of your legal efforts have.
To the music industry this should be obvious; the teenage to 25-year-old demographic loves to rebel. This is actually how modern music started. The recording industry has turned music into a highly-profitable capitalist venture. By doing this, the music industry has joined the 'institution' that your market wants to rebel against. Music piracy was, and still is, the only way to rebel against the institution while acquiring the foundation of that rebellion; music.
Your only way to curtail piracy is to stop acting like the institution that your customers hate. Your legal proceedings, though expensive, are in vain. Do you really think that the revolution-prone (for lack of better term) generation thinks "if I do this, I might get taken to court"? Getting taken to court is often the goal of rebels or protesters. In fact, I think the RIAA is placing bets on a terrible legal gamble; because you can win any number of cases against file-swappers with little effect, but a single ruling against you would destroy your chances of ending file-swapping in a legal fashion.
Your easiest way to increase sales is to outdo file-swappers at their own game, and allow peer-to-peer software to fall into disuse, thus destroying it (a network with few people isn't effective, as you should know). Offering free music downloads would not only bring back some customers, but it would make you stop looking like a money-hungry corporation. Let me give you a few examples, so that it doesn't sound insane for a corporation to offer free products or services.
Microsoft crushed competing web browsers by providing internet explorer for free. Many of the other types of browsers are made in an effort to oppose Microsoft's monopoly, not to make a profit.
AOL, though it is now a terrible and falling company, owes its success to saturating the American population with free disks and a free month of internet service.
Google is the most popular search engine because, for a very long time, it charged nothing from searchers or websites that wanted to be listed as a result. It still charges nothing from searchers or listed websites, will not accept money for a better listing, and is reaping in profits by an advertising strategy that many thought would be an utter failure. Oh yes, and the stock went from about $110 (after investors claimed the initial pricing was to high) to $180, and the two co-founders of Google are billionaires.
Pontiac donated about 280 cars to Oprah Winfrey, in exchange for the huge advertisement that Oprah's entire 19th anniversary show became, and the newspaper headlines for the next few days. The Pontiac G6 celebrated excellent advertising for a very low cost.
I hope that it is apparent that providing free items can reap substantial profits in the long run, if done properly. So, I encourage you to offer some popular songs for free, without any strings or contests attached. Such a marketing strategy is probably the best way to popularize a new band, as it is far more effective than expensive marketing. The failure of the recent Michael Jackson CD should provide ample evidence that marketing, no matter how expensive, will is useless if customers do not like the band or singer.
Your current legal efforts will, in the long run, do far more harm than good. After a single case is ruled against you, your legal power will be demolished, and your entire effort to combat piracy will be ruined. No matter how many cases you win against file-swappers, there will always be more, and you will eventually spend enough money in court to bankrupt the RIAA. As long as the recording industry looks like the institution that it's market hates, there will be people who pirate music, even if they do so merely to spite the industry. Thus, you must find other ways to combat file-swapping.
Allow me to explain what will happen if you do not handle this situation properly. The only limit of the internet is bandwidth; as a result, so-called 'hackers' are able to extort websites in exchange for not using all the bandwidth allocated to a website (rendering it inoperable). Bandwidth is increasing rapidly, and shows no signs of slowing. Given time, many people will be able to download entire CD's in less than a minute. With the ease of piracy, more people may join it, and pirating software will be improved by the computer programmers that use it. The end result is free, easy-to-use, and fast pirating networks that do not have any deterrents like adware (which is the most famous part of Kazaa). Thus, customers will be drawn to pirating music, rather than buying it. One of the best advantages of CD's, better sound quality, will dissipate as household bandwidth increases.
Your best solution is to end the attractiveness of pirating music, because fear tactics won't work. Don't tell people how to vote, stop acting like a money-hungry corporation, and distance yourself from any type of 'establishment' that your customers want to rebel against. People want to buy music from artists who care about their music, not from a board of directors whom care how much their stock rises. Your customers hate your industry, so stop acting like an industry, and do things that even file-swappers will think is ethically right.
want to send this to the RIAA? It's hard to reach, but some addresses may be here. A list of music companies is here. It seems ironic that the RIAA is doing everything it can to dig up information about everyone on the internet, but it refuses to give any contact information. If anyone has an email address, or regular address, I'd love to know it.
To the music industry this should be obvious; the teenage to 25-year-old demographic loves to rebel. This is actually how modern music started. The recording industry has turned music into a highly-profitable capitalist venture. By doing this, the music industry has joined the 'institution' that your market wants to rebel against. Music piracy was, and still is, the only way to rebel against the institution while acquiring the foundation of that rebellion; music.
Your only way to curtail piracy is to stop acting like the institution that your customers hate. Your legal proceedings, though expensive, are in vain. Do you really think that the revolution-prone (for lack of better term) generation thinks "if I do this, I might get taken to court"? Getting taken to court is often the goal of rebels or protesters. In fact, I think the RIAA is placing bets on a terrible legal gamble; because you can win any number of cases against file-swappers with little effect, but a single ruling against you would destroy your chances of ending file-swapping in a legal fashion.
Your easiest way to increase sales is to outdo file-swappers at their own game, and allow peer-to-peer software to fall into disuse, thus destroying it (a network with few people isn't effective, as you should know). Offering free music downloads would not only bring back some customers, but it would make you stop looking like a money-hungry corporation. Let me give you a few examples, so that it doesn't sound insane for a corporation to offer free products or services.
Microsoft crushed competing web browsers by providing internet explorer for free. Many of the other types of browsers are made in an effort to oppose Microsoft's monopoly, not to make a profit.
AOL, though it is now a terrible and falling company, owes its success to saturating the American population with free disks and a free month of internet service.
Google is the most popular search engine because, for a very long time, it charged nothing from searchers or websites that wanted to be listed as a result. It still charges nothing from searchers or listed websites, will not accept money for a better listing, and is reaping in profits by an advertising strategy that many thought would be an utter failure. Oh yes, and the stock went from about $110 (after investors claimed the initial pricing was to high) to $180, and the two co-founders of Google are billionaires.
Pontiac donated about 280 cars to Oprah Winfrey, in exchange for the huge advertisement that Oprah's entire 19th anniversary show became, and the newspaper headlines for the next few days. The Pontiac G6 celebrated excellent advertising for a very low cost.
I hope that it is apparent that providing free items can reap substantial profits in the long run, if done properly. So, I encourage you to offer some popular songs for free, without any strings or contests attached. Such a marketing strategy is probably the best way to popularize a new band, as it is far more effective than expensive marketing. The failure of the recent Michael Jackson CD should provide ample evidence that marketing, no matter how expensive, will is useless if customers do not like the band or singer.
Your current legal efforts will, in the long run, do far more harm than good. After a single case is ruled against you, your legal power will be demolished, and your entire effort to combat piracy will be ruined. No matter how many cases you win against file-swappers, there will always be more, and you will eventually spend enough money in court to bankrupt the RIAA. As long as the recording industry looks like the institution that it's market hates, there will be people who pirate music, even if they do so merely to spite the industry. Thus, you must find other ways to combat file-swapping.
Allow me to explain what will happen if you do not handle this situation properly. The only limit of the internet is bandwidth; as a result, so-called 'hackers' are able to extort websites in exchange for not using all the bandwidth allocated to a website (rendering it inoperable). Bandwidth is increasing rapidly, and shows no signs of slowing. Given time, many people will be able to download entire CD's in less than a minute. With the ease of piracy, more people may join it, and pirating software will be improved by the computer programmers that use it. The end result is free, easy-to-use, and fast pirating networks that do not have any deterrents like adware (which is the most famous part of Kazaa). Thus, customers will be drawn to pirating music, rather than buying it. One of the best advantages of CD's, better sound quality, will dissipate as household bandwidth increases.
Your best solution is to end the attractiveness of pirating music, because fear tactics won't work. Don't tell people how to vote, stop acting like a money-hungry corporation, and distance yourself from any type of 'establishment' that your customers want to rebel against. People want to buy music from artists who care about their music, not from a board of directors whom care how much their stock rises. Your customers hate your industry, so stop acting like an industry, and do things that even file-swappers will think is ethically right.
want to send this to the RIAA? It's hard to reach, but some addresses may be here. A list of music companies is here. It seems ironic that the RIAA is doing everything it can to dig up information about everyone on the internet, but it refuses to give any contact information. If anyone has an email address, or regular address, I'd love to know it.
posted by Chris at
2:04 PM
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